Study of 303 acquired studios finds one in three shut down

Sebastian Cardoso published an analysis of 303 PC and console studios acquired since 2000 in his Game Studio Unlocked newsletter this week, releasing the full dataset alongside it. The analysis found that one in three of the acquired studios has since been shut down completely, according to gamesindustry.biz.

Half of those closures came within five years of acquisition. Overall, 60.8% of the acquired studios either saw their games decline or were shut down, while about one in four stayed at or above their previous output and remained institutionally whole.

By publisher, all 17 of Activision Blizzard's ownership periods ended in decline or closure, as did EA's in 83% of cases. 63% of Microsoft's ownership periods ended in decline or closure, versus 58% for Sony, 50% for Tencent and 43% for Embracer. Nintendo bought six studios over 24 years and closed none; Kadokawa, Krafton and Sumo Group also recorded no closures.

The census also tracked 56 studios founded by large companies: 87.5% of them declined or were shut, and 18 of the 34 that closed never released a game. NetEase opened eight studios between 2020 and 2023, and all eight have since been closed.

Closures were unevenly spread over time. Only one acquired studio in the census closed between 2019 and 2022, but 33 have closed since 2023.

Independent comparison

Cardoso previously worked at Riot, Crytek and EA, and spent about three months tracking the 303 studios acquired over the last 25 years. He also tracked 50 notable independent studios over the seven years from October 2019 to October 2026, finding just 2% closed against 12.6% of acquired studios, though the independent figure rests on a single closure.